Monday, March 28, 2011

Operation Bikini - T-Minus 4 days!

So for the past few weeks - since the Vegan Adventures ended, I have just been focusing in reintegrating food into my diet and maintaining my weight. Due to excess sodium, I've kept my weight around 175-177lbs over the past few weeks and been *REALLY* lax on my nutrition. I've indulged in DQ Blizzards, pizza, chicken wings, pasta, enchiladas - whatever sounded good at the time - and I'm STILL not gaining right now! I'm happy that my body is able to maintain even when I indulge! Granted, if I kept this up for longer than a few weeks, lord knows I'd probably be gaining like crazy!

BUT now that I've satisfied any cravings from my Vegan month - I'm ready to get back on a losing streak! A fellow SparkFriend BMORGANSON & I have come up with Operation Bikini that will go from April 1st through April 30th and I can't wait to get started!!! Some of the details might change here and there, but here's the basic concept:

~Minimum of 30 fitness minutes of exercise EVERY day
~Minimum of 2 strength training sessions each week.
~Eat within 1400-1600 calories each day. (this is an average over the week so we can allow for 'splurge' occasions.)

Weigh ins, measurements & pictures will happen on April 1st, April 15th and April 30th to help us track our progress! I will personally be focusing on incorporating more strength training into my Zumba routines & getting my nutrition back in line. Its a lot harder to hit calorie counts with the excess fat that's in meat & cheese. I might take on an 80% vegan diet during April just to make things easier overall.

April is THE month for birthdays in my family - so I already have plans for birthday celebrations throughout the month....it will be nice to have this motivation to stay on track as much as possible! Even if we aren't perfect every day, I'm sure we're going to see amazing results throughout the month!!!

I hope everyone else has had a fabulous week! Keep up the great work and I'm looking forward to starting Operation Bikini on Friday! Woot!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Running Adventures....

So in the past few days, I've broken out my running shoes again and hopped on the treadmill. I've ran 3 miles in around 11:20 each and feel SO much better about the way things have been going. Tonight is Zumba, so more calories burned there (woot!) - might debut some new songs I've been working on as well....we'll see how it goes.

Anyways, here's the information for my runs today:

Total Mileage: around 2.25 miles (with cool down walks)
Total Calories Burned: 345
Total Running Time: 22 minutes (with around 5 mins of cool down walks for both runs)
Overall feeling: Fantabulous

Based on how I've felt since I strapped on my running shoes again - I now know that running is something that is part of my life now. Even if its only a quick run on a break at work - this is something that I can't leave out of my life. Running is my therapy.

The hubby and I are getting take out from one of our favorite local Delis for dinner - should be awesome! I must admit that sandwiches were one of the things I missed the most when I was Vegan!!!

I am planning a new challenge with a SparkFriend for the month of April to help get myself into even better shape and I'm looking forward to it for sure. Its always nice to have someone else to keep you accountable during these challenges.

I'm hoping to get myself back down to the weight I was when I ended the Vegan Investigation - so around 172lbs, by the time this starts. Weigh in and Measurements will happen on April 1st and every 2 weeks after that. I'm excited - it should be an awesome challenge!

Anyways, I'm going to keep running and hopefully I will continue to get back on track over the next few days. I weighed in at 174lbs this morning - so I have a little over a week to drop 2 pounds of water weight - I think this is entirely possible!

Running is my therapy....

So the past few days have been really crappy for me. Among other stressful things that occurred, the job that I've held for 7 years is in some jeopardy and I've been stress-eating. The crappy thing is that I recognized the trigger, yet was so emotionally f*cked that I really didn't care too much about trying to remedy it.

Yesterday, I hit the proverbial "rock bottom" of my bitch-fest and dediced I was done. I'm tired of feeling like crap and feeling pudgy and fat because I'm eating like crap. I am the only one who controls what I do and if I feel like crap about myself, its my fault, because I'm the one who did it to myself. Vicious circle of DOOM!

So anyways, yesterday afternoon at work, I dediced I was over it, grabbed my IPOD and went to the gym we have here. I ran a mile in under 12 mins and instantly felt better - nothing like sweat, endorphins and killer music to make a girl feel fabulous. I realized yesterday that running is the best therapy I've got (and its free!). While I'm running, I can allow my head to escape - to ignore any other crap that's going on around me and for just a few minutes I can truly relax before jumping back into the clusterf*ck that can be life.

So today, I decided to try the experiment again, and received the same results.

Sweat + Muse (or anything else on the IPOD) + Hard Physical Movement = Happy Me

So far today, I have ran 2 miles (total mileage is over 2 miles thanks to the cool down walks) in around 11:20 each and I feel amazing. I've burned an extra 345 calories according to my Digital Display and that's fabulously awesome. I have Zumba tonight as well, so I don't think I'm going to run anymore today.

One of my favorite quotes from the amazing Bob Harper is "Its not about playing a game, its about fixing what's broken" - for me, its not about beating someone, or competing with someone, but instead I need to truly start looking inside and figure out why am I sabotaging myself so easily. Why am I eating things that are crappy for me, but justifying it because it "fits into my deficit for the week" or "I haven't splurged in a while" - what's driving this behavior??? Why do I feel like I need to reward myself like that, or that my stress will subside if I eat certain things??? The only thing I've learned is that my stress level actually INCREASES when I eat crappy food - because on top of everything else I feel guilty about it. This is what really needs fixing. Not the scale, or the measurements, or the clothing sizes - I need to fix my head and then all of those things will come with it.

I fully acknowledge that the past week has shown me that I still have issues with food. No one is perfect, and no one will ever be able to truly be recovered from eating disorders (I've concluded that I will always suffer from 3 different ones that manifested over the course of my adult life - anorexia, exercise bulimia and binging disorder) - each day is a battle and some days are easier than others.

When I'm running, I lose myself, but I often discover that I find so much more than what I was looking for initially. Perhaps all the positivity that comes from accomplishing something wonderful is helping fix some of the negativity that still resides inside. Maybe I'll never know for sure what truly goes on internally while running - but for now, "running from my problems" truly helps me out.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Reintegration Sucks....

Alrighty - so my week of reintegration is complete. I allowed myself a week to eat freely - no worries about calorie count, etc. It was nice, but at the same time now I feel awful.

There were some days where I had minimal appetite, and others that I ate everything in sight. Hopefully all of my weird cravings for food are now satisfied and I can get back on track. I am up around 5 pounds in water weight and I feel a little bloated from when I weighed in at the end of my Vegan Investigation, and I should hopefully have that off within a few days.

So after my binge-fest, my tummy doesn't look too bad - a little squishier than usual, but definitely not what I was fearing:
Photobucket

This past weekend was awesome - went and saw Red Riding Hood with the hubby for date night on Friday which was really fun! Last night, we went with a friend to a favorite local brewery and I had 8oz of a fabulous brown ale and a pizza which rocked. Then I went with a friend to go see the Lipizzaner Stallions perform. I had seen them when I was a kid and it just brought back fabulous memories!

I have always been a fan of horses & horseback riding - so I am thrilled that I got to go see these amazing horses!
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket

Though this horse wasn't a Lipizzaner, he was just incredible! This is my dream horse!
Photobucket
Photobucket

Today has started out terribly for nutrition - but I'm within my calorie count, and will stay there for the rest of the day. I'm currently going through a stress eating period and working to overcome it - might force myself to get a workout in later - that might help me feel better!

I am plotting my next challenge with a fellow SparkFriend - so hopefully those details should be up soon! I think I'll be renaming this blog and morphing it into my nutrition/workout blog for the rest of the year - just so that all the updates are all in one place!

Hope you all have a better Monday than I am!!! Things are uncertain, and I'm a control freak - I need stability....thank the gods my husband is helping me maintain my sanity! haha! Now I just need to NOT eat all the chocolate in the office!! I can do this! haha!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Wrap Up - How Did I Do?

So my month is over - I went 4 weeks without meat, dairy, eggs or any other animal product and I am so proud of myself! This was something that I didn't think I would be able to accomplish!

So now onto all the stuff you want to know - what happened in 4 weeks?? I lost weight, I lost inches, I slept fabulously, I had energy throughout all my workouts and I was rarely hungry (though some of this might have been due to a minor cold as well).

First of all - I want to share all the numbers before we get into anything else. Over 4 weeks, I spent around $230 in groceries - which averages to around $57 a week in veggies, rice, pastas, breads/bagels, teas, etc. I honestly don't think that's really a lot at all considering we weren't going out to eat very often! The majorioty of this money was spent in the first week and a half - just stocking up my house with vegan friendly foods - after that it was just supplemental grocery shopping to buy things I had run out of.

I worked out consistently 5 days a week for at least 1 hour each workout day - with a mixture of Zumba and kickboxing workouts. I averaged around 2300 calories burned each day according to my BodyBugg. I ate around 1400 calories a day and was rarely hungry due to the volume of food that I was eating on a consistent basis.

I noticed instant improvement in the way my body felt - any of my tummy and digestion issues went away almost overnight. Lots of people say that they experience other improvements in hair shine, complextion etc. I changed shampoo/conditioner halfway through this - so I can't say if there's any improvement there. I seem to still have the complexion of a 14 year old - so though there might have been a minor improvement there, I didn't notice much change.

Okay - So now onto the good stuff. Before I got my tattoo, my weight was hanging around 170lbs - which meant that I had dropped around 12 pounds throughout this whole adventure. After getting my tattoo, it shot up a little bit since my body is "healing" and my final weigh in was at 172.8lbs - which puts me at officially 9.2 pounds down. I really can't be upset about this - because I was rarely hungry, the weight loss almost seemed effortless! Considering that 2.5 of these pounds are water weight - and I probably am right around 170lbs - almost 12 pounds in 4 weeks is astounding!
Photobucket

Photobucket
Photobucket

Now let's look at the other body metrics. After my month of Vegan, I am sitting right around 26.25% body fat, which is a loss of 1.12% from my initial measurements at 182lbs.

Here's the way my measurements break down - these are the same points of measurements that I use on my Personal Training Clients with the differences notated next to them:
Neck: 13.5 inches (same)
Shoulders: 39 inches (-1 inch)
Bust: 37 inches (-0.5 inches)
Chest: 32.5 inches (-1.5 inches)
Waist: 31.5 inches (-1.5 inches)
Belly Button: 33.5 inches (-2 inches)
Hips: 39 inches (-1.5 inches)
Butt: 41.5 inches (-1 inch)
Right Thigh (Up/Mid): 25 inches/23 inches (-0.5 loss on upper thigh)
Left Thigh (Up/Mid): 25 inches/23 inches (-0.5 upper thigh and 1 inch mid thigh)
Right/Left Calf: 16 inches/16 inches (same)
Right/Left Bicep: 12.75 inches/12.75 inches (loss of 0.25 inch from each arm)
Right/Left Forearm: 10.75/10.75 (loss of 0.25 off right and 0.5 off left)
Wrist: 6.75 (loss of 0.25 inches)

Total Measured Inches Lost: 12.5 inches - that's over a foot of me GONE! Holy cow!

Pant size is still in a comfortable size 6 - but my clothes are noticibly looser than they were before. I haven't been shopping recently, so who knows if I am in 4s or not - it just depends on the brand of clothes for me.

Alrighty - so here's my pictures put next to my "befores" - I really don't see much of a difference between the front ones, the back ones I'm more muscular than I was before and the biggest difference is my side pics - I don't think I look as thick as I did before...what do you think? I think I have a more hourglass figure now thanks to the huge drop in inches from my ribs down to my hips - definitely not a bad thing right before swimsuit season!

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

And also just for fun - here's some other pics I snapped yesterday morning:
Photobucket
Photobucket

So now that the Vegan Investigation is over - the "Reintegration Project" begins. Yesterday I totally let myself eat whatever I wanted to eat, and I don't want to know how many calories it came to! haha! I ate (but didn't overeat) nachos, thin crust pizza, girl scout cookies, homemade mac & cheese, turkey burgers and two cadbury easter eggs among other things! I let myself indulge for a day and now the calorie count is back on track. Surprisingly, my tummy doesn't really feel off at all today.

My goals for the next few weeks are to hang around 1500 cals a day and see what that does to my weight loss now. I really enjoyed having this nutrition journal - and I will continue documenting my reintegration of new foods back into my diet. My shoulders are almost completely healed (they started peeling last night and should finish today) - WOW I love being a quick healer! Hopefully I can get back to my normal routine of things soon.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Vegan Day 28 - The End!

Hey everyone! So today was the last day of my Vegan adventures. It was relatively anti-climactic. I ate my leftovers from Buca Di Beppo, made a pinto bean and veggie mix for lunch and whole wheat pasta with Classico sauce for dinner (just wasn't really in a breakfast food mood today).

Had a great Zumba class today and the shoulders are healing nicely - they were a little tight today, but that's to be expected. Tomorrow is the last day in the goopy phase and then we are moving onto lotion, so that should really help me stay moving easier.

This afternoon, the hubby and I shacked up in the house and caught up on all the shows we've been missing since I've been so busy the past few weeks. We are officially caught up on Face Off, Being Human, Supernatural and Mr Sunshine (woot!). Some might think an afternoon of lounging with their significant other is boring - but considering how busy life is for us, spending time doing absolutely nothing is some of the best quality time that I can have with my husband.

Tomorrow morning is weigh in & measurements and I'm going to try to get up early enough to take some progress photos. They might not be as official as the other ones I've taken, but I'll be sure to take some so hopefully we'll see some changes. My tummy has been acting up a little bit today so I'm hoping that it doesn't impact my weigh in tomorrow morning.

I'm getting ready to head to bed now - sleep has been funky over the past few days due to new ink. Since tomorrow brings a new work week, I want to be sure to start it off with a decent amount of rest! I hope you all have had a fabulous weekend and have a great Monday tomorrow!

Vegan Day 27!

Yesterday was an awesome day! It was the first Saturday morning class at Curves and it was a HUGE success! We had a blast! I used my weighted shakers and really gave my arms & shoulders a decent workout! Then I drove to Rhinos and had a Zumba class and kickboxing there - they both went great! Doing 3 workouts was definitely awesome and I felt great! The new shoulder piece held up nicely during the workouts! According to my digital display, I burned over 3,000 calories yesterday (wowza!) and had over 16,000 steps! That definitely helped get rid of some of that extra sodium bloat I've been carrying around for the past few days.

After that, I met up with some of my girlfriends and went shopping around Coronado mall. We haven't had a girl day in a really long time and it was fabulous! Given the fact that I couldn't try anything on (due to the fact that my shoulders are all goopy from the aquaphor that's on them), I had to eyeball all my purchases - but I think I got some super cute things! I stepped out of my normal comfort zone and picked out a really cute black dress (I'm not usually a dress person), 7 fabulous new tanks & t-shirts, lotion and eye shadow from Victoria's Secret, a new book from Borders and a really pretty new necklace (and I only spent $55 on all of it!). I was thrilled.

Then we met up with all the boys (my hubby & the other halfs of the women I was shopping with) and we went to Buca Di Beppo for a great dinner out. It was really nice to have a dinner out with friends, my hubby and still keep it vegan. I had a glass of red wine, the house bread with vinegar to dunk it in (I skip the olive oil since I don't really like it anyways), and spaghetti marinara for dinner. It was fabulous and I had enough left overs to eat today. I didn't mind indulging a little bit at dinner - It only put my calorie intake around 2,000 for the day - which still made for a fabulous deficit! Woot! I think from now on, my "cheat" meals will happen on Saturdays - since I've got all the workouts to offset them

Today is my last day of going Vegan. I can't believe how crazy of a month it has been. Since getting my new tattoo, my weight has been all over the place - but I'm confident that I'll hit my goal of 10lbs for the month (I am close but don't think I'll hit the 160s - I ate out too much this week and my body is retaining water like crazy because of my self inflicted "wound"! haha!).

I am hoping to incorporate a lot of the things I've learned and hopefully get comfortably back into the 160s within the next few weeks. I plan on using this next week as a "refeed" week to slowly reintroduce myself to the foods that I've cut out of my diet. First on the list will be cheese (since I've been craving it for weeks! haha!) Nachos will be tomorrow and I might indulge in some of the Girl Scout cookies that have been hiding in my freezer since they were delivered 2 weeks ago! Mmmmm Tagalongs & Thin Mints!! My hubby has been so considerate and stayed away from his boxes of Samoas while I couldn't eat them - he's such a good man!

Measurements will happen tomorrow morning and then we will see how everything goes. I'd really like to get photos taken tomorrow too but we'll have to see. Maybe I'll take them this afternoon instead so that I'm not trying to take pictures at 3am - that's just too early for anyone to look decent in a picture! haha! Either way, they will get done! Yippee!

Also, I have decided to keep up this blog for at least a few weeks after the Vegan Investigation is over. I want to document my reintegration into the world of Omni nutrition and track how my body reacts to different foods. There may not be daily updates, but I will be posting regularly how different foods react to me again.

Anyways, today is daylight savings, and I hate losing an hour. I feel like I am running late ALL the time even if I'm not. Time to go shower and make some breakfast before heading off to Zumba! Have a great day everyone!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Vegan Day 26! Woot!

So yesterday, I worked only a half day at work - which was fabulous! Then I went down to see my good friend Logan and I treated myself to a long overdue present!!!

Stencil of new present!
Photobucket

Halfway Done - around 1.5 hours of work!
Photobucket
Photobucket

And after a total of about 4 hours of fun (I was at the shop for around 7 hours yesterday!) Here's the final outcome!
Photobucket
Photobucket

I don't have a lot of time to blog - I kept the calories around 1500 for the day, weight is up a little bit which is to be expected since I have a "wound" on my back and I'm gearing up for Vegan day 27 and my 3 fitness classes today - this should be fun!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Vegan Day 25!

So yesterday was definitely interesting. I ate my normal amount of food throughout the work day, but by the time I was out of work I was absolutely ravenous! I had a ton of errands to run after work, so I didn't want to put off eating and risk getting dizzy (which has happened sometimes) - plus I was actually happy that my appetite was coming back *finally*! So after work, I called Thai Vegan and ordered some take-out. I was so horrendously hungry that I ate it quickly, but felt immediately better after that and it kept me full for the rest of the day, which is awesome.

I also got my new Zumba sticks in the mail yesterday. They weigh 2.5 pounds each and can get pretty heavy when lifting them throughout a Zumba workout - trust me, I used them last night! haha! I am really happy I bought them, they are going to help me get some strength training in my normal workout routine when things start getting busy - so I'm thrilled!
Photobucket

So I woke up this morning and realized why yesterday might have been so funky for my eating & energy levels - I flippin' forgot to take my thyroid meds when I woke up yesterday! Go me! I won't be making that mistake again!

Today is Friday and I am stoked! I can't wait for the weekend to start! I took a half day from work and only have about 2 hours left (perks of working an early shift!). The hubby and I had talked about going to see a movie tonight....we'll have to see if we have time! It would be nice to have a date night. We'll have to see how the afternoon pans out!

Happy Friday everyone! Only 3 more days of Vegan left! Woot!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Day 24 - Zumba & Booknerds

Hey everyone! Day 24 went well and now today is Day 25! I was a little concerned about Day 24 as we had a mandatory breakfast out with my coworkers. We were going to a little cafe that I'd never been to before - and it turned out to be better than expected! They made me a veggie enchilada (veggies sauteed in olive oil) on corn tortillas with chile on top (no cheese) and a side of homemade pinto beans! I was thrilled that they were able to work with me on creating something that was okay to eat!

Photobucket

Whatever cold I seem to be fighting hit me a little harder yesterday afternoon. The hubby and I were watching TV on our LoveSac (for those of you that don't know what that is - go here http://www.lovesac.com/sacs/supersac-w-taupe-rhinoplush-cover.html - its basically a giant bean bag for 2 people and its incredible). Anyways, we were watching TV and I totally passed out - unfortunately the hubby didn't realize I was asleep and rolled over and woke me up again, thus I didn't get the nap I had intended and felt groggy for the rest of the day until Zumba classes.

For some reason, I feel better after Zumba classes - call it endorphins, or sweating out all the cold toxins - either way I felt better last night after class than I had most of the day. I am feeling okay today, so hopefully it keeps up. My appetite has been minimal so I'm hoping that it will come back in the next few days

I have been a total booknerd recently too - I have always loved reading and am actually keeping a list of all the books I read this year (simply because I've always been curious as to how much I truly do read). I finished reading "I am Number Four" - which was fabulous, and then just recently read a book called "Clockwork Angel" which is a companion book (though it will eventually be a series) for the Mortal Instruments series.

I wanted to read it as the new Mortal Instruments book comes out in early April and damn was "Clockwork Angel" good! I love the way she develops her characters in any book she writes! If you haven't read them, and enjoy sci-fi/fantasy novels - pick them up! They're fabulous! Now I want to re-read Mortal Instruments simply because they're so good, but I have a ton of books on my Nook that I haven't read yet, so I might jump into those next :-D

Anyways, I think that's about it for me - Day 25 involves a full day at work (they are providing breakfast for us which I can hopefully avoid), hopefully a quick nap at home before Zumba classes and then client training immediately after....then I can go to bed! Woot! Looking forward to tomorrow being Friday!

Have a great day everyone!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Vegan Day 23 - Woot!

Hi! Its me again!
Photobucket

So today was another good day! Though overall I feel great, I'm still worried that I might be fighting a mild cold - appetite has still been low for the past 2 days and I'm sleeping like a rock - which is what usually happens when I am fighting yuckies. Since I am working on controlling my long standing eating issues (binging, etc), I will not force myself to eat if my body isn't telling me its hungry. My energy levels were kinda crappy this afternoon - just felt squishy and slow moving (like one does when they're just not feeling 100%), but the energy picked back up during my Zumba class tonight and I got in a fabulous calorie burn! I feel much better after working out - like a decent sweat got all the yucky crap out of my system. Hopefully it keeps up!

There was the sweetest woman at class today who asked me about how much weight have I lost and she says it looks like I've dropped around 15 pounds! Holy cow! I guess I hadn't realized that my weight loss had been that visible so far (or that I visually had that much to lose!). It really meant a lot to me that someone else has noticed my progress so far! Now I am more excited than ever for the final weigh in!

Earlier this afternoon, I attempted to make my own version of curry vegetables & rice noodles - needless to say, it just wasn't that successful. I didn't have any coconut milk, so I subbed almond milk instead - and it started off okay, but just didn't have a whole lot of flavor to it, so then I mixed some Sriracha in it, and that just made it taste worse. It just didn't cut it - next time I want curry, I'm getting take out! haha!

It didn't look too bad, but taste wise it just didn't cut it! boo!
Photobucket

In other news - I'm still waiting to hear back from the woman in Placitas about teaching the classes out there, but I might have picked up a new client for personal training today (woot!). The hubby and I reviewed our taxes (which previously had us owning around $1000 this year between the feds & state) and we missed something! So after fixing it, we ended up getting $60 back from the feds and only owe $500 to the state! I am totally down to save $500!!! Yippee! Oh, and I also made an extra car payment last month with some extra money, so I have an extra $340 this paycheck too - so extra moneys are always a good thing!!

Okay, I think that's it for me - 5 more days of being a Vegan! I still can't believe how fast this year has gone! OH - and hopefully I will have my new Zumba weighted shakers by Thursday so I can use them in my class *fingers crossed that FedEx doesn't mess things up!*

Have a good night everyone!

Vegan Day 22 - Happy Monday Again!

So yesterday was once again a typical Monday - crazy busy and mildly overwhelming - but I survived with flying colors! Yesterday in the middle of the work day, I just craved some quiet time (which is hard to find when you work in a Call Center - there's noise EVERYWHERE!) - so I went and hid in the only place that I can find some time to myself where no one else can be found....the gym. Even if I didn't work out, its just a nice quiet place to escape from the work day. I learned that the lat pulldown machine makes for a relaxing lounge chair! haha!

Photobucket

Food was great yesterday - kept my fluids up and dropped all the excess water weight I put on over the weekend. I wasn't really too hungry again around dinner time, so I ended up eating a bowl of cereal with almond milk before I went to bed. Calories were a little low, but considering how much I went over some days this past week, I didn't mind them being too off.

Today is Day 23 and I have my Curves workouts tonight! I'll also hopefully hear back from the woman in Placitas as to if they want me to pick up those classes out there so I am hopeful for that indeed! With how fast the water weight fell off, I am hopeful that I might actually see the 160s by the end of this. I have 6 days to make as big of an impact as I can - I am so stoked to do this! Woot!

Now I am off in search of my morning caffiene - I need to wake up a little bit! haha! Hope you all have a great day!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Vegan Days 20 and 21!

Okay, so its been a busy but awesome few days! Yesterday, we went out to dinner with some friends at one of our favorite local Italian restaurants. Its a small Mom & Pop place and the owner was amazing about reviewing the whole menu with me and telling me what was vegan friendly and what wasn't. Their homemade bread was vegan friendly so I totally munched on that with their tomato bruschetta! For dinner I had bowtie pasta with their homemade tomato sauce and some rainbow sorbet for dessert. I also indulged and had a glass of wine, which was definitely nice. I'm not much of a drinker - but occasionally its nice to have a glass with dinner.

With my workouts, I don't think I went over my calorie count for the day - especially since I had two workouts yesterday - but I honestly didn't keep track of everything I ate yesterday (its hard to track homemade Italian food).

Today, the hubby and I went out with my mommy around town and got some shopping done. With all the walking around that we did, I am at almost 6000 steps for the day and at over 2,000 calories burned according to my digital display - so I'm happy! Though I indulged and had a Boba Tea mixed fruit drink (dairy free without boba) and I found a dairy free Dole Pineapple soft serve frozen treat (that was cholesterol free too - which means no animal products at all!) - I didn't go over my calories today! I've been drinking a ton of fluids and still around 1400 calories for the day! Go me!

Weight has been up a few pounds (today it hovered around 178 just due to some excess water weight from this weekend) - so I figure I'm going to just wait and have my final weigh in results next weekend (since next Sunday is my last day of the Vegan investigation!) This next week I am going to stay on track, get my water weight off and hopefully have some good progress!

Anyways, I hope that everyone had a great weekend! I have only a 4 1/2 day work week this week - so I'm hoping it goes quickly! Somehow, I am expecting it to really drag - but I'm hoping that the Gods are kind to me and make the work week as easy as possible for me!

So now that the updates are done for the past two days - I am off to watch Indiana Jones with the hubby (they're on USA tonight) and relax before I go to bed.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Vegan Day 19

Hey everyone - sorry this blog is a little delayed, but Day 19 went great! I got out of work early yesterday and got some errands done which was great! I got some take out from Thai Vegan and it was just as good as the last time we ate there!
YUM!!!
Photobucket

Since we were planning on going to a friend's house that night - I wanted to pick up some yummy snacks to help keep me on track. Thanks to the recommendation of my SparkFriend VEGANINSALEM, I went to Trader Joe's and picked up some Seaweed Snacks! WOW are they yummy! I really enjoyed them and its only 60 calories for the whole package! Woot!!!
Photobucket
Photobucket

So after hanging out at the house for a little bit, the hubby and I drove over to our friends house - I was armed with some Miso Soup and the Seaweed snacks and did great! I ended the day (even after eating ALL that Vegan Chicken Pad Thai) at 1550 calories! Go me!! My sodium was high for the day, so my weight hopped up a little bit this morning, but I'm not stressing too much about it.

We had a blast at Lego build night! I built the Hogwarts Express from Harry Potter and it was fabulous!!
It came with the little blue flying car as well!
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket

This is the motorcycle that my hubby built! Its bad ass! I told him if we ever win the lottery, then he can have this bike custom built for him :-D
Photobucket

All in all it was a good day! Saturday is turning out to be way fun as well! Hope you all are having a great day!

Friday, March 4, 2011

And Now The Workouts Stop...

So I am still fabulously sore from the strength training I did on Wednesday. I love the feeling of knowing that I really pushed my muscles to a new level. But unfortunately, for the best interests of my body & my sanity the strength training workouts need to stop after only one workout *sniff sniff*

Yesterday - in the afternoon, I got an email from a woman in Placitas who wants me to teach Zumba classes out there 2 days a week in the afternoons so I am thrilled to be able to pick those up! ALSO, I got the Saturday classes at my Curves location! Woot! So that means that hopefully within the next 2 weeks, I'll be adding 3 more classes/workouts into my schedule (for hopefully around an extra $300 a month if not more! woot!)

So with that being said - I recently added 3 workouts to my schedule to keep myself in shape (my strength training workouts) - and now I need to add an additional 3 classes to my schedule for work for a total of 6 additional workouts a week on top of the ones I'm already doing. Initially, I only added the 3 as I didn't want to push myself too hard too fast - I don't think I want to see what would happen if I added 3 additional workouts to this new workout schedule. Needless to say, the strength training has to be put on hold until I can get myself adjusted to this new schedule. Plus I don't want to burn myself out. So - with that being said, my strength training workouts are ending after only 1 workout (unfortunately) - but I think the trade off is going to be worth it. The hubby and I can really use the extra money to help us pay off some bills.

So to get my strength training in as well, I will start incorporating the use of weighted gloves & hand weights into my Zumba in the Circuit workouts. I am already getting myself a good bodyweight workout with the choreography I've designed and I've been noticing some nice body changes due to keeping my nutrition in line the past few weeks, but now I just want to add a little bit of resistance training too. Also, Zumba created heavier versions of their current hand weights - I might have to pick those up as a gift to myself to make sure that I am getting the most out of my workouts in my classes. (update - I just bought them and they should be here Wednesday!)

Anyways, if I get scarce for a while and don't update too regularly, its because I'm now teaching 9 fitness classes a week, working 40 hours at my day job, training clients and trying to have a life with my husband!

Adios!

Vegan Day 18 - awesomely awesome!

Hey everyone! How are you all doing? Today is *finally* Friday and vegan day 18 was killer! The work day was a little rough considering I woke up thinking it was Friday (woops!) but once I got in the groove of things it worked out great! I stopped at the store after work to pick up a small amount of groceries for the hubby and I to get through the next few days - and I splurged and got some Miso Soup & Tofu mix and some fabulous looking Gnocchi for dinner.

See!!
Photobucket

Not sure if I'll buy this again, but I'm glad I tried it. I didn't get a lot out of the container (2 servings for almost $4 for the whole box VS pasta which is cheaper and I get more) and the calorie count is higher than pasta is, but it was a yummy little treat! I brought the leftovers for lunch today at work.

The only unfortunate thing about yesterday was my calorie count - it was a little low for my liking. I think I am fighting a really mild cold (the joys of living a healthy lifestyle, the illnesses are REALLY minor!) considering the brain fog I experienced on Wednesday and my lack of hunger yesterday. I just wasn't really hungry yesterday so it was hard to get my calorie count to anything decent. I figure it doesn't happen often (lord knows I love my food!) so I am just trying to ignore the low calorie day and keep myself healthy. I am learning to trust that my body is going to tell me what is right for it - and yesterday it just told me to rest, so I did.

Anyways, back to yesterday - in the afternoon, I got an email from a woman in Placitas who wants me to teach Zumba classes out there 2 days a week in the afternoons so I am thrilled to be able to pick those up! ALSO, I got the Saturday classes at my Curves location! Woot! So that means that hopefully within the next 2 weeks, I'll be adding 3 more classes/workouts into my schedule (for hopefully around an extra $300 a month if not more! woot!)

So with that being said - I recently added 3 workouts to my schedule to keep myself in shape (my strength training) - and now I need to add an additional 3 classes to my schedule for work for a total of 6 additional workouts a week on top of the ones I'm already doing. Initially, I only added the 3 as I didn't want to push myself too hard too fast - I don't think I want to see what would happen if I added 3 additional workouts to this new workout schedule. Needless to say, the strength training has to be put on hold until I can get myself adjusted to this new schedule. Plus I don't want to burn myself out. So - with that being said, my strength training workouts are ending after only 1 workout (unfortunately) - but I think the trade off is going to be worth it. The hubby and I can really use the extra money to help us pay off some bills.

So to get my strength training in as well, I will start incorporating the use of weighted gloves & hand weights into my Zumba in the Circuit workouts. I am already getting myself a good bodyweight workout with the choreography I've designed and I've been noticing some nice body changes due to keeping my nutrition in line the past few weeks, but now I just want to add a little bit of resistance training too. Also, Zumba created heavier versions of their current hand weights - I might have to pick those up as a gift to myself to make sure that I am getting the most out of my workouts in my classes.

So - today is Friday and I am stoked for the weekend! I have long overdue plans to meet up with a friend of mine I haven't seen since June of last year! EEK! I am looking forward to it so much! We also have plans to go over to a friend's house for a Lego build night tonight - which should be awesome! Those nights are always amazingly fabulous but they usually involve a lot of food and sometimes a little booze! I will post pictures of our creations when I update tomorrow! That being said, nutrition might be a little bit off tonight, but I will do the best I can to stay within a decent calorie count.

Just in case my weight hops up tomorrow and Sunday due to excess water weight, I did take measurements & weighed in this morning before work - so if I don't notice any additional progress by the time I weigh in on Sunday (my normal weigh in day) then I can use the information from Friday to track my progress. I stepped on to see a fabulous 174lbs on the scale this morning (WOOT!) and now I'm thinking it really might be possible to drop into the 160s by the end of this thing! I'm already down 8 pounds since I started and its been 3 weeks since I started, I could easily get down to or at least come close to seeing the 160s again by March 14th!

Oh - and just for cuteness, here's a picture of my Kitten Princess snoozing last night
Photobucket

Anyways, I think that's about it from here - its been a long week and I'm looking forward to the weekend! This weekend and next weekend we have some awesome plans coming up, so I am looking forward to it all! Now I just need to get through the next 7 hours of work without losing what sanity I have remaining! haha!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Day 17 - survived! Woot!

Wow, I can't believe I have less than 2 weeks left of this adventure! The past few weeks have really flown by! So after my rant about not working out enough, I started a new workout plan yesterday and it felt awesome. I haven't hit the weights in a while and it was truly needed. My legs & upper back are nice and sore today and I'm really enjoying the feeling like I'm pushing myself again. I blogged about that workout on my Workout Journal (www.fitnesswithhillary.blogspot.com) if you wanted to see what I did to work out.

Yesterday was a little odd in the fact that my brain was just functioning kind of slow - my body had energy but my brain just wasn't 100% working the way it normally does yesterday (which is usually racing - I'm convinced I have undiagnosed Adult ADD). I just felt like I never fully woke up in the morning. I got enough sleep, drank enough caffiene, ate enough calories - yet I still had issues functioning. It just felt like I was on auto-pilot for most of the day. I am not too happy about this as it usually is a precursor for an oncoming illness, however I refuse to get sick right now. I am pushing fluids consistently, forcing myself to sleep and rest and eating healthier than I have in a while - getting sick isn't an option! haha!

Food-wise, I hit a calorie count of 1450ish yesterday which is good considering I had my first weight training workout and a Zumba workout last night. As expected, the soreness caused a little jump in the scale this morning - was at 175.8 up from 175 the morning before. Today is a rest day from lifting and I have Zumba at Curves tonight which is always awesome.

Hopefully the soreness will go away over the next few days and I'll be good for a weigh in on Sunday morning. I might have to weigh in earlier (again) due to plans we have this weekend. My mommy might be coming down and we might be going out to eat, so I don't want my numbers to be messed up from excess water weight if we go out. Either way, a weigh in will happen between tomorrow and Monday.

I've also noticed that packing my vegan lunches for work is becoming much more automatic than it was the first week - its not as difficult to accept the food I am eating. It just is what it is. Its definitely becoming more routine than it was over the first few weeks - and the foods I pack are easy to transition into my normal diet once this month is over. The only thing I still have regular cravings for is cheese - other than that, I'm really not missing the animal products as much as I had expected to. People have been asking me what the first thing I will eat when I am transitioning back to Omni and my answer has been Nachos! haha! Its hard living in the southwest and not eating cheese :-)

Anyways, Day 17 went well and today is Day 18 - definitely looking forward to the upcoming weekend! My head is feeling clearer today however I woke up this morning thinking that today was Friday - so it was a tough realization when I noticed it was actually Thursday! GIR! haha!

Hope you all have a great day!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

AHHHH I love a new plan!!!

Oh man - I've been antsy for a good butt kickin' and I gave it to myself today! I have been needing to start a new plan for a while and the one I finally decided on is amazing. My husband found this workout program last year and I picked it up for him (since he so rarely gets into anything fitness related) and I'm happy I bought it because I enjoy using it too. The workouts are well rounded & allow for a good butt kicking. Due to time limitations, I had to split up the workout into 2 different portions. The first portion was the functional warm up and the Abs routine and the strength training HIIT portion was done during my lunch break at work.

I really pushed and didn't allow myself a lot of rest time between sets, and boy did I feel it! The plan initially calls for higher reps initially, so I was doing 12-14 reps per set which I was definitely feeling after a while. Due to space limitations, the gym at my work only has dumbbells - so the lifting was done with dumbbells and not barbells. I find I can lift heavier with the bars as the weight is distributed more evenly and my wrists aren't pulled so much. A 40lb bar feels really different from a 40lb steel dumbbell.

Anyways, I used this information to figure out my 1RM on some of my lifting stats and I'm happy with it. Sunday is the next time I am doing this workout, so I will have a chance to play around with the bar at home and hopefully get a more accurate readout (since I damn well know I can squat more than 60 pounds, the dumbbells were just awkward for me since I held them up by my shoulders)

So, here's the workout - the times, cals burned, etc are all added up since I split it into 2 sessions.

Functional Warm Up:
Opposite Raise - 5 per side
Chops with 10lb dumbbell - 6 per side
Mountain Jumpers - 10
Breakdancers - 10 per leg

Ab Training:
Lying Leg Thrusts - 3 sets of 8
Reverse Crunches - 3 sets of 8
Bicycles - 1 set of 24
Alternating Crunches - 15 per side
Bench Crunches - 1 set of 15
Bench Plank - held for 60 seconds

Strength Training:
Romanian Deadlifts - Set 1: 14 reps with 80 pounds (two 40lb dumbbells), Set 2: 13 reps with 80 pounds
Front Squats (I hit parallel or lower each time and took these slow & held the bells up near my shoulders which was awkward since they were so bulky) - Set 1: 12 reps with 40 pounds for 2 sets
Wide Grip Pronated Lat Pulldowns: 2 sets of 14 reps with 50 pounds
Walking Lunges: 2 sets of 10 steps with 50 pounds (a 25lb dumbbell in each hand)
Bench Press: 14 reps with 30lbs (a 15 pound dumbbell in each arm) - this I know is higher with a barbell over bells!
Bent Over Rows: Set 1: 12 reps with 50 pounds (two 25 pound bells), Set 2: 12 reps at 40 pounds (two 20 pound bells)
Two Arm Swings: 1 set of 25 reps with a 20lb bell

HIIT:
Treadmill Sprints for 1 min at 7mph followed by 1 min recovery at 3.5 mph for a total of 8 minutes

Total Time: 45 mins
Total Calories Burned According to Bugg: 240 Cals

My legs are going to be toast later and I am loving every minute of it! I am also hoping for some awesome definition up near my shoulders & upper back, since that's where my tattoos are, and I always like them to look fabulous! haha! I am accomodiating for a few extra cals today during the work day, since I usually get munchy after strength training - am at around 800 cals so far for the day, but I don't anticipate going over my 1300-1400 mark for the day. I am just going to go for high volume low cal veggies when I get home :-D

Got my Zumba class tonight which is typically a good 400+ calorie burn so I'm looking forward to that as well! Have a good one everybody!

Day 16 - definitely odd...

Hey there everyone - I made it through day 16 fabulously, but it was an odd day indeed. When we got home from work, the hubby and I prepped some more food to get us through the rest of the week. He was helping me cut some cantaloupe and he accidentally sliced the hell out of one of his fingers! I felt so bad I almost cried! It wasn't enough to go to the hospital, but it took a really long time to stop bleeding! Poor guy! I still feel bad about it and joked that that's the last time he helps me prep food in the kitchen (even though he is a significantly better cook than I am)!

After I made sure he wasn't going to bleed out in the kitchen, I prepped all our grapes, made some new whole wheat pasta with Classico sauce for my lunches and made pinto beans in the crock pot for tacos & stuff. I'm set for yummy food over the next few days! We did run out of diet sodas today though and I need to pick up more of those - I need my caffiene in the mornings or I am one cranky woman!

Thankfully all of my excess water weight from all the indulgent food this weekend was gone when I woke up yesterday morning. So even though I woke up to a nice 177.6lbs in the morning, by the end of the afternoon I felt bloated, fat & squishy - which was not a good feeling to go to class on. I hopped on the scale and it read 178 before my class, so I wasn't bloated on food or anything. I made it through my Zumba class last night and felt a little better afterwards, but still felt squishy...UGH...not a happy feeling!

This morning when I woke up, I realized why. When you are dropping fat and the fat cells loose their nutrients, they fill with water before releasing the fluids and shrinking to their new size - which can cause a yucky squishy water bloated feeling. I experienced the joy of this yesterday and woke up to a fabulous 175lbs this morning (the lowest I've been in a long time!) and an unusual craving for cereal. I'm definitely happy about that...the weight loss, not the cereal - however I did eat some cinnamon fiber plus with almond milk for breakfast this morning to shut that craving up!

I am going to start a new strength training workout today that will be 3X a week. I am going to split up the workouts so hopefully I can get them all done on my breaks & lunch at work (since we have a gym here) so that I don't interfere with the little free time I have. Right now, I am planning on having these workouts be on Wednesday, Friday & Sunday with all my other workouts during the week. Monday will be my full rest day. I will blog in my workout journal (www.fitnesswithhillary.blogspot.com) all the fun details about the workout today. I am excited to get started! I am sure my weight loss might stall for a few days while my body adapts to heavier lifting again - but hopefully it won't be too bad! I'm going to keep moving & stretching and pushing fluids, so hopefully the excess glycogen & water stores won't add up to much!

Anyways, I'm out to enjoy Day 17 - Happy Wednesday everyone! Have a great day!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Day 15 - Monday Again..and some ramblings...

Hey there everyone! Monday was MUCH better than Sunday was. I got back on track and am feeling good again. Scale was back down to 177.6lbs this morning, so I'm hopefully on the losing streak.

In other news, I've been growing restless over the past few days and need an outlet for all my stored up energy. I feel like I am getting comfortable with my workout schedule of fitness classes and now am ready to add my own workouts & fitness goals back into my schedule. The hubby and I talked about this last night and he's worried about me falling back into old habits such as over training & under eating. I had to assure him that this time around, I am consistently eating & taking care of myself and that even though I am training others, I shouldn't have to put my fitness goals on hold to do it. I truly miss the feeling of a good butt kicking in a workout and I am itching for a killer workout right now.

The other thing is that I am in the middle of the Vegan Investigation - which initially started out as only a nutritional adaptation. I wanted to keep everything else the same so that any changes I go through can be attributed to the changes in nutrition, and not because I added a crazy workout schedule (I vented thoroughly about this on my other blog yesterday - www.fitnesswithhillary.blogspot.com).

I am conflicted because I wanted to keep this a nutritional change only & not change my workouts - but I feel like I am SOO ready to intensify my workouts again and I want to use all this extra energy to my advantage. Anyways, I looked through my workout programs last night and I think I have a good one that I can start soon. I might start that up this week and just say "eff it" because it will only help to amplify any changes that are occurring with going Vegan. I think I have seen good enough results over the first half of this adventure to prove that the nutritional changes are working.

So with that being said, I'm updating my workout plan and hopefully going to start today or tomorrow. It will be a 4 day workout split so I won't be working out excessively and I will be doing a great split of cardio & strength training. I am tempted to bring clothes to work out in so that I can get the workouts done on my lunch breaks at work - but I don't know if that will happen. I have all the equipment I need at home, it just seems that afternoon workouts don't always pan out the way I want them to. Something always seems to come up. If I can just consolidate the workouts and get them done on my downtime at work - this will only work out in my favor. Plus, I'll have more recovery time between my workouts and when I teach my fitness classes after work.

Anyways - enough rambling - fitness plan changes will be coming soon, because I fear for my sanity if they don't. Other than that, vegan is going great and hopefully getting back on the losing streak & see some progress again!